About us

Paws at the Park began in April 2016 and has quickly grown from a small 20 stall market with 500 attendees to an exciting event with thousands of people and their pups attending, 80+ stalls, talks, demos and fun activities like dog yoga (doga) and flower crown classes.

For those of you who are new to Paws at the Park this is our story…

We are self-confessed crazy dog ladies who run our own small doggie businesses.

Our idea to create Paws at the Park came from humble beginnings. We had both attended ‘normal’ markets with our businesses but felt that it would be amazing to create a place where all local doggies business owners (or petrepreneurs!) could show off their products and services to like-minded furparents… so we decided to make it a reality.

The first markets - April 2016

Our first Paws at the Park was held in April at Musgrave Park, with 20 stalls, 1 coffee van and a pancake cook-up raising money for the Animal Welfare League of QLD, all on a non-existent budget. The response from the doggie community and business owners was overwhelming, so much so that we knew that we wanted to do it all again!

Doing it all again, August 2016

We were lucky enough to be invited by the Gold Coast council to host our next event in Varsity August 2016. With their support we were able to improve and grow the event at Central Park Oval in Varsity Lakes, with 60 stalls, 7 food trucks and a stage with demos, talks and competitions.

Our best event yet, August 2017

In August 2017 we took Paws at the Park to Mudgeeraba Showgrounds with the help of some amazing sponsors, amongst them RACQ.

A grassroots legacy

While we can’t wait to watch our event continue to grow we will always stay true our original vision for Paws at the Park- as a grassroots market with high quality, local small doggie businesses – with the addition of fun competitions, raffles for AWLQ and other activities along the way. Thank you for all of your support and we can’t wait to start organising our next event!